Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra dies at 43

Salvatore Licitra - a talent who died too young. Maybe a helmet next time if anyone was dishing out second chances.

Swiss born Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra has died from head and chest injuries suffered in a road accident in Sicily last month. He had been in a coma since the crash and never regained consciousness.

The 43-year-old – who was seen as the heir to the great Luciano Pavarotti in Italy – crashed his scooter into a wall in the southern Sicilian town of Modica. He was not wearing a helmet when he crashed.

The singer made his international breakthrough in 2002, when he stepped in for Pavarotti in Puccini’s Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Licitra died on Monday morning in the hospital in Catania, where he had been flown after the accident on 27th August.

Doctors at the hospital said Licitra’s family had agreed to make his organs available for transplant.